Mareanie and me
by Varei
Summary: Melancholy and her partner pokemon Mareanie go on a journey of reflection and growth as they travel across the Kalos continent.
1. Chapter 1

Merci and i

The sun was high in the sky, and its warm light beamed down onto the city. The waterways were glistening, and the the wind, cooled by the waters below,Softening the sun's heat with a relaxing breeze. the city walkways were filled with people and their pokemon hustling about their day, moving between shops and restaurants like,living their lives while indulging in the life the city offered. Looking just above the crowds, beyond the rise of the shoulder to shoulder restaurants and shops, you could see the Prism Tower adding a picturesque flare to even a mundane day such as this in Lumiose city.

My partner Merci and i walked besides the waterways of lumiose city, attempting to bypass the foot traffic to the pokemon center by cutting behind the shops. Beside me, _merci-_ that is, my marenine-was, for some reason, attempting to walk on his front two hairlike tentacles as we moved through the streets. He wore a face of extreme concentration as he deftly moved one tentacle in front of another, panting all the while.

I still haven't figured out what exactly he was trying to accomplish. I mean, i understand That his evolved form often does walk with their appendages, but…it was obviously more difficult to walk like that than it would be to just hop around like he normally does. he tried in all sorts of different positions- two tentacles down, four tentecles down, he even tried rolling along them like a pinwheel- all in vain. In the end, he ended up in a sort of handstand- how he concluded _that_ to be the most intuitive stance, i'll never know. Still,to his credit,he was definitely making progress; when he had started this morning, he could barely take three steps before crashing face first into the ground. Now, he was making massive strides at a time. Disregarding the concentrated look on his face,It almost seemed natural to him...

Except for the fact that it obviously wasn't. The strain on his tentacles was massive; They were definitely bigger than normal now, which could have easily been swelling from using them all day. When cut, the tentacles could regrow in even less than a day...even so, he was obviously pushing himself terribly hard. i wanted so badly to just swoop him up in my arms, but i didn't stop him,and instead leaned down to give him some words of encouragement.

"Wow, you're really getting it now, huh Merci?"

He grumbled out a soft _"mar',_ under its breath, his main focus still being putting one tentacle in front of the other. Small beads of sweat were dripping down he's face.

Gah, how cute.

"You've been working so hard, why don't i carry you the rest of the way? Think of it as a re-ward…"

I trailed off as my mareanie glared at me.

"Not gonna fly, huh?" i said with a sigh.

Maybe i am too soft on my pokemon...

" _Pokemon respect someone strong,"_ my mother used to say. _"Show them that strength by leading them forward! If you just let it do what it wants, it'll never really respect you as it's trainer."_

I knew that. I understand that. I get it, but...for some reason, i didn't feel like that was the right way to do things with Merci.

Merci wasn't the type to give up on something once he started. No, he was the type that would bang his head against a wall until he either knocked itself out or the wall crumbled before it, if you gave him the chance. I knew that. He's the type that wanted to use his own strength, to make his own path. He would listen to me in battle, but beyond that...he was his own pokemon. He wasn't just...some animal i had under my control.

He was my partner. Watching him try his hardest to master something of his own volition was honestly one of the most enjoyable parts of our journey so far. And i think he prefers it that way, too. I don't know if i'm doing this the right way, and i'm often worried that i might mess up...but if it means Merci can be happy, then…

 _Geez, why am i even thinking about all of this..._

I was so lost in thought, it took me a moment to see Merci vehemently shaking his head- which, seeing as his head composed 70% of his entire body, caused him to wobble violently, nearly losing his balance. Seeing this, I shook my head, and gave him a light tap on the back of its head to re-stabilize it, making sure not to tap his poison tip.

"I see. Well, i think you can do it, but remember, i'm here if you need help..."

Merci re-balanced itself, gave me a small nod of acknowledgement, and continued walking on it's tentacles.

"That type of focused energy sure is nice…" i muttered under my breath, just loud enough for Merci to hear me. He seemed to perk up a little, and his steps were slightly faster than before. Seeing him,I couldn't help but smile to myself as we rounded the corner to south street.

Eventually,the two of us made it to the pokemon center. While the cool breeze that was blowing was nice, the cool provided by the A/C of the pokemon center was miles ahead of what the wind was packing, providing a nice shelter from the heat.

As we stepped in, i swooped up merci before he could fall over from his exertions earlier.

I sat at the lounging area, coddling Merci as i gave him some water to drink, whispering things how great he was to him all the while. Merci responded with tired coos, and wiggled his tendrils around as i gently held him and played with him.

A nurse joy came over to take a glance at him- understandably so, since he looked like he had just ran a marathon- and i put him in his pokeball so the nurse could heal him. The moment the healing was done, he sprang from the ball and hopped back into my arms. I walked outside,holding him in one arm, and took out my poke-nav with my free hand, snapping a selfie for the check with my mother i do every town.

Merci and i were all smiles, and my black hair and Gothic attire stood out well against the backdrop of the Prism tower. i couldn't think of a clever caption, so i went with something cheesy. it read, _'Merci and i, Together forever!'_


	2. Chapter 2

Food- fours day supply.

Water bottles- Refilled.

Sleeping bags-Yes.

Health care supplies- Five day supply.

Lantern-Working.

Lantern fuel- Low.

Repels- Two left.

Navi Plus battery- Low. no signal.

Lighter- Broken.

Flint-stone-Yes.

Flashlight-Functional.

Secondary magnetic compass- Working...I think.

In the center of a forest in Kalos, there were waterfalls that spread across a vast cliff side. Merci and I sat on the edge of the lake at the bottom of the falls, gazing into the deep blue waters. I examined my face- my black eyeliner, my cloudy black contact lenses,and my straight, shoulder length black hair all stared back at me. I ran my hands along my arms and legs where my clothing was ripped, and gingerly touched the scorch marks beneath them. with the forest behind me, and the setting sun glinting off the flowing waters, I pondered on just why we had decided to come here. Or, more accurately, how we had ended up here on our journey- in the middle of some random forest with just the two of us...

No,rather than that, I had better things to focus on. We had no signal on the Navi, a limited supply of food,and no way of knowing where we were. I had to figure out what we were going to do to get out of here. I stared into the water biting my thumb,trying to keep my mind focused on going through the list of supplies that we have, and how we were going to get back to the road, but I always ended up back at the same question. _Why?_ Why was I even doing this? This trip, this journey...what was even the point? What did I really gain something from doing this…?

As I sat by the water side, lost in my thoughts, I could vaguely hear Merci moving beside me, impatiently _tap tap tapping_ his tentacles on the soft grass. I glanced over at him ,and his annoyed look stared back at me. Marenines tend to have a resting face that gives off an air of aggravation, but his face was a step beyond their normal annoyed look. He sideways glanced at for a moment, and then went back to loudly _tap tap tapping_ away at the dirt beside the pool.

I rolled my eyes and nudged him to get him to stop, and he not-so-gently slammed into me in response, jolting me out of my half-stupor.

 _Oh, don't you go getting an attitude with me._ I glared at him, and he glared at me- I rolled my eyes and turned my back to him, and I could hear him getting even more riled up, as if he was trying to make as much noise as possible.

 _Honestly..._

It was his fault we ended up out here anyway. I had only wanted to take a peek into the forest- you know, just a fun little mark to make on our adventure, maybe nab a new pokemon or two for the gang- but this little bugger wouldn't stop making noise. we got forced way farther into the forest than I had anticipated when Merci wouldn't stop arguing with this Flaaffy we ran across;it started off innocently enough, with them both chattering at each other.

Which i was fine with, honestly. I wasn't really looking for an ugly flaaffy for the party, but if Merci wanted him as a friend I'd have gladly added him to the roaster. But then he did what he always did- they started butting heads, nibbling and biting at one another, until eventually Merci started chasing the poor thing around while yelling his own name at it. before I could catch up to him to get him to knock it off, a small horde of ampharos saw Merci chasing around the Flaaffy.

Needless to say, they…took offense to my partner's actions. they started firing off lightning bolts at us, and chased us further into the forest. I managed to catch up to Merci, and blocked most of the bolts from hitting him somehow, and eventually we were able to lose them. Unfortunately, we were even deeper in the forest than we had planned to be, and since we couldn't retrace our steps, I tried to navigate my way around and out towards where we came...which only got us more lost.

So now here we are, on the edge of a lake in the middle of god knows where, surrounded by forest as far back as the eye can see. The shocks barely hurt back then, but now I could feel the skin burning where the lightning hit. I had applied the ointment I bought, and it reduced the burns tremendously, but they still stung. I think it wasn't even the burns the hurt, so much as the reason I got them. I suppose I should be happy, being able to defend my pokemon from harm like a good trainer, but instead all I felt was annoyed it had to be done in the first place...ah, well. It's not worth dwelling on.

The sun was already setting- if we didn't get back soon, Merci and I would be trapped in the forest at night, alone. I mean, we could probably handle ourselves- I had the supplies, and Merci has poison to ward off most monsters that wander near. He also has a an absolutely vicious bite-especially against pokemon that have already been poisoned. Despite his size, The look in his eyes when he sees a poisoned pokemon is absolutely malicious- it sends chills down my spine just thinking about it. It's scary, but also kinda cool…

I glanced back over at marenine. He was near the forest now, smacking away at the trunk of a tree with his tentacles- the same practice ritual I had conceived to train his attack and resilience at the same time. On most days, I'd try to do it with him- though I still have the phantom pains from hitting the tree with my fist until it went numb with him the first couple of days...

Looking at him, Merci seemed kinda down. Seeing him look so dejected did little to make me feel better.

 _Ahhhhh, why am I such an idiot._

At the end of the day, I was probably being more stubborn than I should have, too. I didn't really wanna tell Merci to stop messing around at first, since he connects with people by butting heads with them. It's how we became friends in the end, so I thought… Well, l didn't think he would get upset like he did. I should have tried to help him earlier, before it became an issue. In a lot of ways, this was my fault, too.

This trip in the forest really was starting to wear on me, mentally. I needed to eat- but we shouldn't, since we needed to conserve food. I felt filthy from wandering the forest all day- I had washed up earlier, only to put on the same dirty clothes on, basically defeating the point. There was no way to contact my friend, since he didn't have a navi, either.

No, now that I think about it, it might just be this journey in general. I was tired, hurt, and the only person I had to talk to was being too hot-headed to even listen to me. I wanted to go back to my room at home and just cry.

 _But I can't do that now, can I…_

Instead, I tried to call out to Merci.

"Say, Merci, come here for a sec."

"Mar, Mare, mar!" I could hear him shouting as he continued his beating of the tree, completely ignoring me. He wouldn't come back to me, even if I asked. Seeing him ignore me kinda annoyed me, but it also made me realize I had done something way too similar, not too long ago.

I smacked the sides of my face, forced myself up out of my daze, and did what I had wanted my parents to do back when I had left- I went over and talked to him.

"So- Merci - I can tell you're- still pretty upset…" I said between the smacks of his tentacles on the tree. The tree had actually taken quite the beating- it had several lash marks where Merci had smacked it. He wore an angry scowl on his face, his sharp teeth making his face look even more angry that it already was.

"You know, if we talk about it, we can maybe make a plan in the future to deal with it…?"

He stopped smacking a tree for a moment to look at me. His blue eyes wavered for a moment, but he still shook his head. We held each other's gaze for a moment.

"Well, if you're not gonna talk, I suppose I should. Uh…"

He stared at me expectantly. Really, what are we supposed to talk about? Up until this point, it seemed like things flowed naturally- there was always something to talk about. Battle strategies, places to go, things to see… but now there wasn't any of that. It was just me and him, alone in the forest. He understood me when I spoke to him, but he couldn't convey what he wanted in any complex fashion, and I really didn't know how to put what I wanted to say to him in words, so we were just... staring at each other. Merci started rocking back in forth, and I subconsciously made a small 'tch' noise with my mouth as I contemplated the best way to get my feelings to him.

In response, Merci smacked the tree, while maintaining eye contact with me. I glanced at him, and he tilted his head at me. I halfheartedly made another, softer clicking noise with my tongue, and he smacked the tree again- this time in a different spot, making a slightly deeper noise as it resonated through the tree. He followed it up with another smack, and I followed his smack with a different clicking noise. I looked at him,and He looked at me,and raised all seven of his tentacles, as if to say, 'I'm ready when you are.'

What followed was about fifteen minutes of us trying out different sounds, making different beats with each other's noises. Merci was always good at pattern recognition- we listened to music a lot together on the road, so whenever I started to click out a song, he was able to pick up on it pretty fast. Of course, I also returned the favor. We played songs, using each other's sound as a backup instrument for a while, when I suddenly had an idea. Merci seemed to see my change, and wore a soft smile as he waited expectantly.

I clicked out the beat for 'Believer', a sort of 'tsk tsk tock, tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk tlok', and Merci picked it up almost instantly. He recreated the beat with a sort of 'boom boom thud, boom-boom-boom boom boom thud' on the tree. And then I started singing- if you could call it that- to the beat he was laying down. We were both off tune- his sound, while generally in the right beat, was completely off tune. And I couldn't really get the tune exactly right. But it was fine- we were partners, after all.

"First things first,

Imma say, all-of-the-words inside my brain,

I'm talkin bout our journey and the way that things have been, oh"

"Marr~r" Merci added in his voice as the chorus, while still keeping the beat going.

"The way things have been, oh. ( _mar~r)_

Second things, second

Do you think that this is all that we could be,

Im the captain of this ship, but I don't know what we should see, oh, ( _mar~r)_

Don't know what we should be, oh ( _mar~r)_

I had taken, things for granted,

All of our blessings, disenchanted,

Now we both feel, the pain

that weighs one me,stays on me, hazes me, changes me,

Conjoined not by, Their fame,

Seeking the power, through the pain

witness the message, that you bring

seeing the beauty, through the...

( _Mar!)_

You make me a, you make a believer, believer

(Mar!)

We get knocked down, we get back up, believer, believer...

i trailed off after the chorus and leaned against the tree, my face burning with embarrassment. If it had been anyone else but Merci here, I'd probably just drop dead. But when I looked at Merci, his face was beaming. He was clapping with his tentacles- a soft 'plap plap plap' sound if you've never heard it- and I gave him an applause as well.

"Excellent work, Merci! You're a strong pokemon, but if this whole training thing doesn't work out, you should totally be my drummer!"

"Mar, Mareanie!" he said back to me, excitedly. I say said, but his voice was so loud it felt like he was going to wake the whole forest. I slid down and sat at the base of the tree, and he sprang into my arms. I looked at him quizzically, seeing how just half an hour ago he wouldn't even listen to what I was saying- but sighed, and patted him on the head.

"I guess that's a good a way to connect as any, huh…"

With my back against the tree, and Merci in my arms, I pondered over the questions I had thought earlier.

"Say, Merci."

He looked up at me from my arms with his big blue eyes.

"Why do you want to be my partner?"

He blinked at me twice, and then raised the two tentacles on the sides of his head in a shrugging motion. Right, of course he wouldn't know. I didn't know, and I was the trainer. I was supposed to know, why did I even bother asking…

I must have looked dejected, because he waved his tentacles in my face, and looked at me expectantly- as if he was urging me to ask more questions.

"Well, what do you want think you'll get from us working together?"

Merci tilted his head and pondered for a moment, and then did a motion with the same two tentacles that mimicked a person we saw on tv flexing.  
"You wanna get stronger, huh?" Merci thought for a moment, nodded its head, and then hopped out of my arms. He did the thing he had been doing in the city a few weeks ago -basically a handstand on his front two tentacles- and looked at me expectantly.

"Oh, you wanna...play around? To do tricks?" Merci looked decidedly less amused at that answer than the first one. He hopped down from his hand stand, and placed one of his tentacles squarely on me.

"Ohhhh! You want to spend time with me?" Merci smiled and nodded happily. I scooped him up and hugged him tight. "Well aren't you just the sweetest little thing."

Our journey was just beginning. And if this detour was any indication,we still had a long, long road ahead of us. When I questioned him, I honestly wasn't sure what I was expecting. His answer might not have been the one I was looking for...but, when I thought about it, there really wasn't one better. If I had him, and he had me, that's all the journey really needed to be.

* * *

Author notes

This place doesn't appear in the game, but in the 17th movie of the anime, the allearth forest! it probably didn't need to be mentioned, but i thought it would be interesting to know.

ampormos is the evolution of flaffy, which is why they got upset- they were mad that a child of the pack was being chased around, if that wasn't clear from the text.


End file.
